The U.S. economy grew at a modest pace late last year, with U.S. companies saying supply chain problems and labor shortages remained a brake on growth as prices soared. Fed in the latest Beige Book report, released Wednesday.
“While optimism remains broad, business in several regions reports that growth expectations for the coming months have eased somewhat in recent weeks,” the Fed said in a statement.
The Fed also noted a “sharp drop” in leisure travel, hotel and restaurant occupancy, as the number of new coronavirus cases rose.
With inflation now more than doubling the Fed’s flexible annual target of 2%, the Federal Reserve is already taking steps to curb it and has signaled that the era of extremely loose monetary policy, followed by the From the beginning of the pandemic onwards, it’s practically perfect, although the Omicron variant of the coronavirus triggers a new wave of cases, with the number of infections reaching a record high across the country and the world.
On Tuesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, during a hearing by the Senate Finance Committee ahead of his second term as president of the Federal Reserve, said the current wave of pandemics is expected to have “short-term “effects on the economy and that the Fed is ready to tighten its monetary policy.
The Fed has been cutting its monthly bond and mortgage purchases as part of its emergency pandemic support program since November and now plans to close by mid-March. paving the way for interest rate hikes during its March 15-16 meeting.
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Source From: Capital
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